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Over the past year, the regional councils of a number of regions of Ukraine (Poltava and Ivano-Frankivsk) have adopted laws demanding that President Poroshenko empower regions’ rights. Kiev has regarded these as manifestations of separatism. Now the baton has been taken by social organizations not only in Lvov, but also Transcarpathia. Indeed, it appears that Transcarpathis is gradually regaining the status of the main “separatist region” in Western Ukraine.

On October 12th, 2016, the chairman of the Transcarpathian Regional Council, Mikhail Rivis, demanded that the region be allocated more funds for developing infrastructure. Otherwise, Rivis threatened, Transcarpathia might secede from Ukraine. On December 2nd, in the Transcarpathian capital of Uzhgorod, a meeting of Hungarian youth and local deputies was held, whose participants proclaimed support for Rivis’ statement that the region could separate from Ukraine and establish autonomy. Hungarian activists then called on President Poroshenko to sign a special agreement which was read aloud by the leader of the initiative, Hungarian activist Ivan Farkosz.

Farkosz stated: “We invite Kiev to conclude this agreement on delineating powers, which would allow the Hungarian population to live in Ukraine with dignity. We support the opinion of the head of the Transcarpathian Regional Council, Mikhail Rivis, who announced the existence of objective preconditions for potential secession from Ukraine. If Kiev wants to see this region as part of its state, we demand the establishment of a quota of 20% for representatives of Hungarian communities in the Transcarpathian Regional Council and television broadcasts in Hungarian.”

Hungarians constitute approximately 12% of the population of Transcarpathia and are widely represented in councils on all levels. The raising of their demands for representation to 20% suggests that they have a feel for power and are actually dictating their terms to Kiev. In turn, the SBU has opened a criminal case on the holding of anti-constitutional events and is carrying out an investigation.

Following Uzhgorod and the local Hungarian community, the Polish community of the capital of Galicia, Lvov, has also asserted its rights. In Lvov on December 25th, a forum of the Polish community of the Lvov region was held whose participants demanded that the Kiev government grant economic autonomy to the region. The chairman of the association of Poles in Lvov, Sergey Lukyanenko, stated that the region is 50 years behind Poland in economic development. Lukyanenko added: “Poland will allow the residents of the Lvov region to realize themselves.” He also noted that Lvov “still has a chance.”

It is worth noting that Poles sympathize with the Hungarians of Transcarpathia. When in March 2016 in Uzhogord there was a procession of Ukrainian neo-Nazis shouting the slogan “Knife Hungarians!,” this caused an outburst of indignation not only in Hungary, but also in Poland itself. As a point of comparison, the Ukrainian foreign ministry and Ukrainian state expressed indignation at Warsaw after one person (only one!) yelled “death to Ukrainians!” at a march in Polish Przemysl. Ukraine, however, chose not to notice the mass calls for killing the Hungarians of Transcarpathia who have inhabited the region for more than a thousand years.

The leader of the Mukachevo cell of the “Right sector” Aleksandr Sachko said the battalion will continue the fight.

KIEV, July 14. /TASS/. Hiding from law enforcement officers, extremists of the “Right sector” are moving from Mukachevo to the border with Poland. This was reported by the Ukrainian TV channel “Inter”.

“The epicenter of the events is moving, actually, to the North of Mukachevo. In the village of Verkhnaya Vyznitsa there are three new checkpoints. Staffed by soldiers of the national guard and police. It is 20 kilometers from the city. That is, we can assume that the fighters of the “Right sector” are leaving the foot of the mountain, where they were hiding”, – stated the report of the channel.

It was noted that extremists “every day are moving towards Lvov” and, most likely, keep the course to the border with Poland. The leader of the Mukachevo cell of the “Right sector” Aleksandr Sachko said the intention of the battalion to continue the fight:

“It may take a year or two … Well, then, so be it. If someone thinks that the guys can’t live in the woods as long as necessary, believe me, there are enough opportunities to increase this formation by several thousand people,” – he said.

At the same time, Slovakia and Hungary took measures to strengthen their security on the border with Ukraine.

[This is interesting timing if they are headed to Poland, since the anniversary of the Volyn massacre (July 11, 1943) by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) of Poles, Ukrainians, Armenians, Jews, and others, just took place.]

MOSCOW: Russia is concerned with arrival of U.S. military personnel on Ukraine soil, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

“Up to 300 U.S. troops reportedly have been deployed to a peacekeeping center in Ukraine’s western Lvov region,” the ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told reporters.

Noting that those U.S. military instructors would train Ukrainian soldiers from March 5 to Oct. 21 on western military hardware operations, Lukashevich said that U.S. military presence in that country has become a fact.

He also highlighted danger of U.S. plans to start massive arms supply to Ukraine despite successful implementation of the ceasefire agreement reached in Minsk, the Belarusian national capital, on Feb. 12 between Ukrainian government and Donbass insurgents in eastern Ukraine.

Moreover, the U.S. Congress has been drafting a bill on allocating one billion U.S. dollars for Ukraine’s army training and armament equipment, according to Lukashevich,

“It seems like Washington decided to take (Ukrainian armed forces) under full maintenance,” Interfax news agency quoted Lukashevich as saying.

Meanwhile, the spokesman blamed the U.S. for its military presence in the Black Sea, as NATO Maritime Command said Wednesday in an online announcement that six NATO warships had arrived in the Black Sea for joint exercises.

“This somehow contradicts the public statements of the U.S. administration supporting political settlement of conflict in Ukraine,” Lukashevich said.

He warned that such actions might lead to “the most serious consequences” for the peaceful settlement of the crisis.

Lukashevich also urged the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe monitoring mission in Ukraine to verify implementation of Minsk agreements, especially to monitor the weapon withdrawal by conflicting parties in the “impartial, well- organized and systemic way.”

Andriy Sadoviy, who is both the Mayor of Lvov and the leader of the Samopomoga party which is part of the ruling coalition, wants to recognize the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) as a combatant entity that participated in World War II.

“We remember heroes. Every month our city pays each UPA veteran 1,000 hryvnia and will continue to do so. We must remember our heroes, both the current ones and those who fought for our statehood in the last century” – said the Mayor of Lvov, Andriy Sadoviy.

Sadoviy claims that UPA veterans ought to be honored not only by his city but also the Ukrainian government itself. At present UPA veterans living in Lvov, their widows, and former political prisoners receive a variety of discounts. There are 500 UPA veterans currently living in Lvov.

The UPA is responsible for carrying out the genocide of the Polish population of Eastern Ukraine, during which an estimated 100,000-150,000 Poles were murdered.

Translator’s Note:

One of the ironies of the current Polish foreign policy is that, in the pursuit of a stridently anti-Russian policy, it is turning a blind eye to the growth of power and influence among genuinely anti-Polish movements in Western Ukraine, movements which might one day claim territories which are currently on the Polish side of the border. The armed forces of socialist Poland fought a counter-insurgency campaign against the UPA in Eastern Poland, which resulted in the remnants of the ethnic Ukrainian population there being “ethnically cleansed”, or resettled to parts of Western Poland seized from Germany as part of the Potsdam agreements. One can still see abandoned Ukrainian villages in southeastern Poland. Should the current Ukrainian government ever truly stand on its two feet, it will surely revisit this chapter of Polish-Ukrainian relations